A modernized retelling of William Shakespeare's Othello, O changes its setting to an elite private school in the American South. Odin (Mekhi Phifer) is the only black student at Palmetto Grove and also the star basketball player, with hopes of reaching the NBA. A popular student, he is dating Desi Brable (Julia Stiles), the daughter of the school's dean (John Heard), and they are deeply devoted to each other despite their different backgrounds. His best friend Hugo (Josh Hartnett) is a starter on the basketball team, and the son of the hard-driving coach Duke Goulding (Martin Sheen), who considers Odin as much his son as Hugo. Hugo is jealous of Odin's widespread popularity, so he hatches a scheme to ruin Odin's reputation with the help of Roger (Elden Henson), his rich roommate who will do anything to be popular and get Desi's attention. Through carefully planned revenge, he begins to make Odin believe that Desi is carrying out an affair with teammate Michael (Andrew Keegan). As Odin begins to receive merely coincidental signs to prove it, he begins to slowly lose his grounding and turns to Hugo for help, not knowing that he is being set up. As the basketball season comes to a close, Odin's jealousy begins to consume him, resulting in the loss of everything he cares about the most. O was sometime actor Tim Blake Nelson's directorial follow-up to his well-received debut Eye of God. Jason Clark, Rovi
- Genre: Drama
- Category Melodrama, Teen Movie, Tragedy
- Theme: Boarding School Life, Interracial/Cross-Cultural Romance, Dangerous Friends, Basketball Players
- Studio: Lions Gate
- Run Time: 01 hr 34 min
- Edition: Special Edition
- Language: English
- Subtitle Language: Spanish, English
- Picture Format: widescreen
- Format: DVD
- Release Date: September 25, 2001
- Lead Actor: Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Mekhi Phifer
- Supporting Actor: Derek Zieminsky, Jon Rosenbloom, Sean Murphy, Parker Kirby, Shawn Hill, Christopher Grooms, Jerred Clarke, Jantz Baker, Jaime Ingram, Justin Ferira, David Dooley, Dal Conner, Doug Ayers, Rick Streeter, Chase Page, Michael Givens, James Galloway, Wally Welch, Julie Fishell, James Middleton, Mike Flippo, Jack "Jay" Munn, Kelvin O'Bryant, Ronalda Stover, Christopher Jones, Dana Ratliff, Ken French, Lisa Benavides, Marshall Gitter, Rachel Schumate, Christopher Dong, A.J. Johnson, Martin Sheen, John Heard, Chris Freihofer, Rain Phoenix, Richard Grandison, Evan Jones, Errol McPherson, Nathan Monroe, Tony Moore, Bernard Smalls, Quintrai Washington, Josh Thorpe, Zack David
- Director: Tim Blake Nelson
